


You're (My) Home

by FoiblePNoteworthy



Series: Don't Go Home [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jet (Avatar) Lives, M/M, Romance, Western Air Temple, azula is also the worst, dont tell anyone, i cba giving her nuance right now so she's just evil, jet is hella soft, ozai is the worst, something that could be read as fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-25 08:13:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22492861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoiblePNoteworthy/pseuds/FoiblePNoteworthy
Summary: Li was (probably) alive.Things could still be okay.
Relationships: Jet/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Don't Go Home [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1617748
Comments: 88
Kudos: 1350
Collections: Finished111





	1. He Once Was Lost

**Author's Note:**

> it's back bitch

It had been weeks. Weeks of investigating, skulking in the shadows, scrounging for information that people really didn’t want him to know; weeks of travelling with no one but his Freedom Fighters by his side. Weeks of walking through Fire Nation territory, guilt wracking his insides – he was putting his friends at risk to save his boyfriend, who was only at risk because Jet hadn’t figured it out faster, hadn’t managed to save him from himself in time.

(He was looking at all these people he’d hated for what they couldn’t help and hadn’t even been involved in; watched them struggle with the effects of war, same as he did.)

But he’d finally found him.

He’d found the Avatar.

Granted, he’d only been looking for Aang’s companions, for some form of resistance against the Fire Nation, for any kind of ally who could help him end the war and find Li.

Jet was frozen to a tree. Smellerbee and Longshot were sunk in the ground, up to their knees. Their weapons had all been confiscated. A furious waterbender held an ice knife an inch from his throat. A flick of her fingers would kill him.

“Why should we listen to a word you say!?” she yelled, the knife quivering. “You’ll say or do anything if you think it’ll help you murder Fire Nation citizens, regardless of what they’ve done.”

Jet couldn’t offer her anything much stronger than, “I’ve changed,” without explaining Li. He didn’t deserve to have his name dragged by these people who didn’t understand _why_ he did what he did.

(They were there, and so was Li. They knew exactly what he did. They knew him at his worst, and Jet didn’t need to know about that.)

“Like _Koh_ you have, Jet. This is just another lie, out of a lifetime of lies, and we’re not going to-”

“Ahem.” The tiny terrifying earthbender cleared her throat. “Just drop him, Katara, I can make sure we get the right answers out of him.” She cracked her knuckles for emphasis.

The ice surrounding him turned to water, thoroughly soaking him. He knew she didn’t have to do that but didn’t comment on it. The second he got his feet under him, they disappeared into the ground, along with the rest of his legs and his hands. The tiny terror looked down at him from her now higher position.

“You said you’d changed,” she said.

He nodded.

She ticked up an eyebrow, her head tilting ever so slightly.

 _Oh shit,_ he recognised the off-centre gaze, _she’s blind._

“Uh, yeah, I have.”

She nodded. “Truth,” she said, with a frankly worrying level of certainty. “Why?”

“…I have my reasons.”

“And I want to know them.”

He hesitated. He really didn’t want to get into this with people who wouldn’t understand – they didn’t know Li, wouldn’t listen to what he had to say about him.

Jet wouldn’t have either, _before._

But he didn’t have a choice. If this was what he has to do to save Li, then…

“I met someone,” he said. “In Ba Sing Se. He was Fire Nation but he was… important to me.”

Sokka made a face at him over her shoulder. “Are you really about to try to argue that you have a Fire Nation friend? You, of all people?”

“Well,” the girl said, “He’s not lying.” Doubt laced her tone even as she vouched for his honesty.

Might as well go all-in at this point. Maybe the earthbender could tell if he left something out. “It was more of a Firebender ex-soldier boyfriend, if I’m honest.”

He grinned as Sokka choked on air, falling on his ass in shock.

“Tr _u-uth_ ,” the little earthbender sing-songed, her smile sharp. Oh, Jet _liked_ her.

“Oh, come on, Toph,” Katara said. “If he’s got a firebender boyfriend then shouldn’t he be here right now? I think you just need your feet checked.”

“My feet are seeing him just fine and I say he’s telling the truth.”

 _(What does that even_ mean _?)_

“Yeah, Jet,” Sokka said, pulling himself back up from the ground, pretending he had dignity, “Where’s your firebender boyfriend?”

And it had been weeks and he had a plan and it was working, so everything should be ~~fine~~ ~~(no)~~ _~~okay~~ _~~(no)~~ _bearable_ , but that ache in his chest just rose again like it was yesterday he disappeared in his sister’s grinning grip.

He couldn’t meet anyone’s eye, felt the urge to rub at his face, he wasn’t crying (yet), and he needed to be strong right now, needed this to _work._

“I haven’t seen him since the Fall of Ba Sing Se. He was.” He stopped. How was he supposed to explain what Li had done? They wouldn’t understand and had no right to know Li’s history. “It was complicated. But the only thing I can think to do to help him right now is winning the war and trying to figure out what had happened to him.”

Sokka and Katara were unmoved, but Aang, bleeding heart that he was, was cracking behind them.

“He’s telling the truth,” said the earthbender – Toph – again.

“So,” Aang sat down on the ground in front of him, so that their heads were level, “You’re not here trying to get revenge against the Fire Nation, or to kill the Firelord, or anything like that? You’re just here to save someone you care about.”

Jet felt oddly hoarse. “Yeah. He – he’ll be alive, probably-” _no, he has to be_ “-but the people he’ll be with-” his breath caught, and his throat closed, so he couldn’t force out any more words.

Aang made a sharp gesture with his fist, and the ground released the three of them.

The Avatar’s group sequestered themselves just out of earshot, throwing occasional glances at them over their shoulders.

Jet took the time to compose himself. He’d barely spoken about what had happened, having managed only once to get through the whole story, as he knew it, for Smellerbee and Longshot’s sake - and he’d been in shock for half of it.

He needed to process it properly.

He needed to push it aside until he got to Li.

It couldn’t be much longer – the Avatar and his friends would have a plan to take down the Firelord, and they could be there and they could help and he’d find Li and everything would be okay.

He just had to hold himself in check until then. Couldn’t risk breaking down before that, not when Li needed him.

_(It was exhausting being this scared all the time.)_

He could do it.

He could.

The group returned, and, after they’d shared one last look between them (the earthbender looking thoroughly disgruntled at all this _seeing-people_ business), Sokka spoke.

“In just over a week, there’ll be a solar eclipse…”

***

The Day of The Black Sun vied for the coveted position of Worst Day of His Life.

The brief relief of the Avatar’s team’s trust in him, mixed with the wash of hope of _‘what if he’s in the city?’_ , only set him up to crash.

He hadn’t expected the red rage of seeing _her_ again. Every word out of her mouth struck him to the core until they went unheard over the rushing in his ears. He went into a haze, unable to see anything but her _smirk,_ anything except her _dragging Li away from him_ _~~(he’s not~~_ ~~yours _to take)_~~ , anything except the single drop of her blood he’d managed to spill.

He hadn’t felt this anger in months. He’d got rid of it, this _hatred_ festering inside of him but _she._ She brought it all back. He welcomed the old friend and did everything he could to make her bleed again.

He wasted their time, and they couldn’t get to the Firelord before the eclipse was over. He’d wasted all of their time awash with fury, trying to get revenge against her instead of trying to save Li from her.

He didn’t even think to ask her about him. All thoughts had vanished the second he laid eyes on her.

He’d failed.

(She was his sister, Li had to have been there with her, in the catacombs beneath the city.

When he focused on his fractured memories of the fight, he could almost swear he heard Li’s voice, raised in _~~fear?~~ \- no, _it had to be anger, please let it be anger, at one point. That distraction had let her slip from his grip.)

Once upon a time a few months ago, he’d have sacrificed anything to make a Fire Nation Noble bleed. Now he could only kick himself for giving her the time.

Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.

The army was gone. The world knew Aang was alive. They were running for their lives. He hadn’t saved Li.

He hadn’t saved Li.

Li was still there. In danger. In pain. And it was Jet’s fault.

He’d been so sure that today he would make a difference. Even if he didn’t find him today, he’d be so much closer. It would only be a few more days, a couple of weeks at most, until he saw him again.

He’d failed.

He wasn’t going to see him. Might never see him again.

Sat in a single, tiny, bison saddle containing _every remaining member_ of the resistance, Jet shattered.

***

It took a few days _(a blur of screaming and crying and trying to tear off his skin)_ for Smellerbee and Longshot to glue the pieces together well enough that they could bear his weight.

He could breathe, now. It wasn’t easy, it burned in every way, but he was _grateful_ for the air in his lungs.

Not all hope was lost, just yet. The Avatar lived. Jet had his sword and his friends.

Li was (probably) alive.

Things could still be okay.

Things didn’t seem okay when the Avatar started talking about firebending teachers and _‘Do you think Li would teach me if we found him?’_ and Jet wanted to cry when he should be roaring because _‘What do you think I’ve been_ trying _to do all this time?’_

That was enough to make a few cracks in the surface. Which had to be why, from a distance, he heard an angel’s voice saying, “Zuko here.”

He’d never run so fast in his life.

He hid in a shadow as the Avatar’s friends snapped at _his_ Li, words lost in a buzzing as Jet’s brain leaked out of his ears, creating this hallucination.

Behind him, Smellerbee gasped as she caught up with him.

“Jet.”

_“No.”_

“Jet, it’s really him.”

A shuddering breath pulled his chest. Like moving through thick mud, he stepped out of hiding to face the boy who looked and sounded like Li.

Not-Li froze mid-sentence. Everything went quiet.

For a crystalline moment, their eyes locked.

It was him.

It was Li.

He was here. Safe.

Jet didn’t realise he was moving until he’d almost bowled him over, clutching him to his chest. There was a half-second of stiff confusion before Li broke down into sobs on his shoulder and he was so, _so,_ glad to be there to hear them and hold him and take away some of that ache inside of him.

He was floating.

He pulled back just enough to pepper his face with little kisses.

Li slotted their lips together, and the world was right again.


	2. And Now Is Found

After a lifetime and a moment, Li and Jet were knelt on the floor, legs tangled, exactly where they’d found each other.

They’d only just stopped crying.

Jet couldn’t release his grip on Li’s robes. The Fire Nation red looked good on him; brought out the gold in his eyes and the red of his lips and-

Sokka was screaming.

It was kinda ruining the moment.

He looked over to see his increasingly constipated expression reach critical mass.

“ _Zuko_ ,” he flailed, “is your _firebender boyfriend_?!”

He felt Li’s perfect mouth grinning against his neck.

“What makes you think that?” Jet asked.

“Y-you. You were-”

“Making out?” Li smirked, drawing out of Jet’s neck. He was so evil and so dashing and so everything. The weeks apart had only made him prettier. He’d lost all immunity to those batting eyelashes.

Sokka shuddered. “That was never something I thought I’d have to see. I need to _wash my brain_ …”

Behind the drama of the original Gaang, Toph was snickering into her hand.

“So, is it, ah,” Aang looked at the two of them, PDAing all over the floor. “Zuko is your firebender.”

Li cocked his head cutely. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve never seen this man before in my life.”

Jet restrained his giggle, burying his head in Li’s gorgeous muscular shoulder. He felt drunk, all woozy and happy and slightly ill at the same time.

“Could you give us some time alone?” said Li’s beautiful dry rasp.

Sokka shrieked. “Like Koh we’re leaving _you_ unsupervised in our camp!” Every time he spoke he only got louder.

“It’s just that we’re gonna make out again.”

(Jet had the evillest, most devious boyfriend.)

Sokka paled. Then fled without another word, his arms high in the air, waving back and forth like branches on a falling tree.[1]

Katara and Aang quickly followed, throwing worried glances over their shoulders but not slowing their pace. They seemed equally as concerned as Sokka about the security of allowing ‘Zuko the Evil Firebender’ (and Jet would need the story on that one) free reign of their camp.

Toph made fingerguns at the two of them _(who even_ taught _her that?)_ and left without a word.

Smellerbee and Longshot had already disappeared.

They were alone.

“So,” Jet said, pulling Li to his chest. “Where were we?”

***

It took a monumental effort, but they made it to Jet (and now Li)’s room. They wouldn’t have bothered, except that there were a few things they wanted to do that maybe shouldn’t be done somewhere that small children could find them, but mostly because Sokka kept showing up (and immediately leaving, screaming, again - ruining the mood, _again_ ), apparently expecting them to be done already so they could talk about whatever was going on with them and Li.

Speaking of that. “I didn’t know you knew the Avatar.”

Li flinched where he was laid out next to Jet, half curled into him. “About that…”

Jet sighed. “I’m sure that whatever it was you did you already regret it and don’t plan on doing it again, so there’s no point in blaming you for something that I’d be willing to bet is in some way your asshole dad’s fault.” Li relaxed again. “Did I cover everything?”

“My father ordered me to capture the Avatar. I wouldn’t be allowed to return home until I did.”

_Of fucking course he did._

Jet tightened his grip on Li. “You know, I am actually going to kill that guy one day.”

“Obviously,” Li scoffed. A moment passed, and his tone softened. “I yelled at him before I left.”

The warmth in Jet’s chest spread to his eyes. He kissed Li, hard, on the cheek, only realising which cheek after he pulled back. Li didn’t seem to mind though, so he kissed his scar again, covered up the brutal mark with his affection.

“I’m proud of you,” he told him, because he could only imagine how difficult that was for Li, to look at the man he’d given up everything for, who’d scarred him and hurt him all his life, who made Li flinch whenever a man larger than him called him ‘son’ – Li had looked at him and held his own and forced himself through the shivers to tell this man…

“…What did you say?” he asked.

A pause.

“I-”

A catch in his breath.

And Li was crumbling again.

Jet held him closer and tried to puzzle out what was going on in his head. He hadn’t done that before and that had failed them in the end – when he thought he understood, but really didn’t, and Li had paid the price.

Had Li processed what he’d done yet? Jet hated Li’s father with a passion, but he knew how important the man was to him. Cutting ties with him must be confusing and painful and hard and he was so, _so,_ proud and glad and everything and he would take all the pain Li was putting out and clutch it to his chest and feel all of it - and he would be happy about it because he was _healing_ now.

Li pressed himself into Jet’s chest and he let him and held him closer and hoped he could feel safe now.

“He… I just wanted - I always -” Li spoke in that strange voice, wet with tears and dry with hoarseness and _painful_. “She promised me he’d love me.”

And if Jet broke down a little, too, then the only person who could see was the one he trusted the most.

***

Eventually it was hunger that drew them out.

They felt like teenagers in those theatre dramas Li had loved so much, and after a moment Jet remembered that that’s what they were _meant_ to be. (He pushed the thought away; he didn’t want to be angry anymore.) Jet stole Li’s shirt because it smelled like him (like spices and campfires; small and cosy and safe), and Li barely seemed to notice as he dressed in Jet’s clothes.

Sneaking through the hallways, Jet’s mind flashed back to that first night, their first adventure, when everything had hung on the tender-hooks when Jet was just trying to reel Li in, keep him there for the next day so he could keep working on keeping him with him.

He looked at his porcelain face, flushed with childish glee. Li noticed the look and smiled back at him.

He had him now. He’d come back to him, against all odds.

Li was his. He was here, in his arms again. Nothing would change that.

***

“He’s not staying here,” Sokka said. “I didn’t think that needed to be said out loud.”

The two of them had been caught grabbing food from the stores, and Katara and Sokka had _insisted_ that they talk about what was going on.

And by talk, they mean yell.

(Toph was just along for the show at this point.)

“Weren’t you guys just saying Aang needs a firebending teacher?” Jet said. “You even _suggested_ Li.”

“We didn’t know he was Zuko!” Sokka gestured with his whole body towards the quietly sitting firebender. “Evil personified!”

Li looked up at them, face adorably frowny and pouty and small. He was like a little turtleduck, or a pygmy puma kitten.

Jet looked at the angry siblings, sitting across from him, then back to his tiny little cute baby boyfriend, deliberately told to sit away from them and from Jet, then back to them again. Were they blind?

Well, that wouldn’t explain it anyway – _Toph,_ at least, was being reasonable.

Or. She was just laughing at them all, which was entirely to be expected.

“I came here,” Li said, “Specifically to teach the Avatar firebending.”

“Pshaw,” Sokka scoffed. “You came here looking for Jet.”

Li winced, shoulders coming up to his ears. “I… didn’t actually know Jet was going to be here. I thought he was still in Ba Sing Se.”

Everyone stared at him as he hunched further into himself, mumbling, “I wanted to have fixed things before I faced him and explained everything.”

Jet let out a sigh, scrubbing at his hair. He got up and sat down next to Li, wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him in close. “I forgave you back in Ba Sing Se,” he told him in a low soothing tone, too quiet for the others to hear. “I never blamed you for your actions. Only myself, for not realising what was going on until it was too late.”

He pulled back a little, raising his voice and turning to the others. “Just listen, alright? Li’s had a rough time of it.”

“ _He’s_ had a rough time?” Sokka stood, raising his body along with his voice. “He almost got Aang _killed_ in the Fall of Ba Sing Se and then got to go back home to his comfy palace while _we’ve_ been fighting for our _lives_ out here.”

Li flinched into his side. Jet clenched his fists but forced himself not to lose his cool. “You ever thought about the part where I knew _exactly_ where he was and who he was with, and _that’s_ why I’ve been so worried about him?” He squeezed Li’s hand once in apology before elaborating. “You’ve met his family; you really think they’re gonna treat _him_ any better than they treat any other tool in their toolbox?”

“Well, he is a tool,” Sokka muttered, and Jet found himself halfway out of his seat without noticing. 

“Jet.” Li took a gentle grip on his shirt – Li’s shirt technically – and Jet forced himself to untense and take a breath.

Toph, from her vantage point just slightly outside of the conversation, gave the two of them a considering stare (was it a stare when she couldn’t see them?), followed by a small encouraging nod.

Directly across from him, Katara, Jet noticed, looked thoughtful, perhaps sympathetic - before she visibly shook off whatever she was thinking. She scowled at him as soon as she noticed his noticing.

Li leaned forwards a little, taking a deep breath, and Jet leaned back. If the firebender wanted to say his piece and represent himself by himself then… well, his social skills left a lot to be desired sometimes, but Jet would respect whatever he wanted.

He didn’t get the chance, however, when Aang noticed them and came over to join them, asking, “Why are you wearing each other’s shirts?”

_Oh, fuck yes._

Jet felt the trembling in Li’s chest next to him. This one, he recognised well.

He grinned. “So when two people care about each other very, _very_ much-”

“NO!” Sokka screeched, leaping up to cover Aang’s ears, “He is a very small baby, you can’t say _any_ of the things you were about to say.”

“Well,” Li started, in the carefully neutral tone that meant _‘I am dying of laughter inside but am too repressed to tell you’_ (and Jet had been so _pleased_ when he’d figured _that_ one out), “Isn’t that something someone should tell him soon? Before he gets too much older, at least.”

Sokka paled. He was still holding Aang by the ears.

“Yeah,” Jet leaned forwards, resting an elbow on his knee (his other hand occupied with one of Li’s). “Say, Sokka, you’re the man of your group right? Shouldn’t you be the one to-”

Toph’s laughter grew loud enough that Jet could no longer be heard. He didn’t care. Sokka knew exactly what he’d been suggesting.

“Wait.” Sokka blinked, staring at the two of them dressed in each other’s clothes, perhaps a little bit too relaxed considering they were almost sorta (if you turned your head and squinted, in Jet’s case) in enemy territory. He saw how Li was half-draped over Jet.

He spluttered. “You… ALREADY! When did you even have time to – well, no, I know _exactly_ when – but you’ve barely been here and you’ve just been…”

Jet and Li exchanged a particularly sickening lovey-dovey look designed specifically to piss Sokka off. A quick but passionate kiss sealed his doom.

Sokka’s face screwed up, his hands leaving Aang’s ears to scrub at the side of his head. Instead of a scream, this time all that came out of his mouth was a pitiful little whimper, as he tried and failed to rub away the mental images. _“This was never supposed to happen, why is this my life, someone please kill me now…”_

Aang looked incredibly confused.

Sokka curled up into a ball on the floor. Katara patted his head with false sympathy.

The airbender turned to Toph, the only one who wasn’t crying, either with laughter or horror. “What’s going on?”

With a smirk of her own (that confirmed her position on Jet and Li’s side, it seemed), she said, “Oh, you know, Snoozle’s soul and/or childhood innocence just died because he realised that Crazy’s fucking The Fire Prince.”

Jet took a moment to appreciate the look of dawning horror on little Aang’s face before the second part of her statement smacked him in the head.

“I’m fucking the _WHAT_?!”

[1] Because I can’t say a wacky inflatable arm flailing tube man with this time era. This sort of thing is literally the biggest problem I have with writing in the era

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "You're the Prince"  
> "I must have told you this at some point"  
> "I think I’d remember it"  
> "But… all that stuff about wanting to kill my dad"  
> *so much shit suddenly makes sense* "…Jesus fucking Christ he’s the Firelord"  
> "That’s not why you wanted to kill him?"  
> *long sigh* *big hugs* *plotting regicide*
> 
> kudos and comment please and thank you  
> this thing is finished now!! I hope it was everything y'all wanted
> 
> If you want more Jet and Zuko hanging out I'm writing another series called Guilt which has Zuko being a freedom fighter. It's long (currently around 70k I think) and fluffy and sad and focuses on Zuko and Jet's relationship (as well as Smellerbee and longshot, ofc).
> 
> tumblr: https://foiblepnoteworthy.tumblr.com/


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